Sajid Javid hit by jihadi bride baby backlash
SAJID JAVID’s Tory leadership ambitions were dealt a blow last night after the death of jihadi bride Shamima Begum’s infant son sparked a furious backlash over his decision to strip her of British citizenship.
The under-fire Home Secretary was branded an ‘unlucky general’ as a string of Whitehall rows about Brexit, knife crime, online harm and immigration left him isolated from both Downing Street and Cabinet colleagues.
Senior Tories last night distanced themselves from Mr Javid’s decision after Conservative MPs broke cover to describe the Government as ‘morally responsible’ for the death of the newborn in a Syrian refugee camp.
Baby Jarrah was born a British citizen on February 16, shortly before the Home Secretary stripped his 19-year-old mother of her passport as she was considered a national security threat.
The decision sparked a debate over the rights of IS brides and fighters to return to the UK, with the row reignited following the news of Jarrah’s death.
Last night it was reported that two more jihadi brides had been stripped of their British citizenship. Sisters Reema and Zara Iqbal, who between them have five boys under the age of eight, fled from East London to join IS in Syria. They are reportedly now in a refugee camp in northern Syria.
Begum’s British family had begged Mr Javid to allow safe passage for Jarrah to come to London.
Conservative MP Philip Lee suggested it was Mr Javid’s desire to lead the party that was behind his blocking of Begum’s return. He urged him to reflect on a decision ‘driven by populism and not by any principle I recognise’.
He added: ‘I think we had a moral responsibility to her and her baby.’
Former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell demanded Mr Javid restore Begum’s British citizenship.
And one Minister said Mr Javid was ‘shaping up to be an unlucky general’ who was always ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time – either on holiday or on the wrong side of the argument’.
Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent and a friend of the Begum family, also criticised Mr Javid, saying: ‘This was an entirely avoidable death of a British citizen. There was no attempt to help by the Home Office. It’s shocking how the Home Secretary has treated this situation.’
There was still some support for Mr Javid last night. Security Minister Ben Wallace said: ‘ Only the hardest and dedicated IS members stayed until the end.’
Mr Javid also found himself at the centre of a fresh Cabinet row last night after an extraordinary blast at potential leadership rivals Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock, accusing the successive Health Secretaries of failing to train enough British nurses.
Signalling his intention to extend a one-year exemption after Brexit for foreign doctors and nurses from strict immigration rules that set an earnings floor at £30,000, Mr Javid wrote in a private letter to Cabinet members seen by this newspaper: ‘More work needs to be done.
‘ There remains a significant need to attract overseas nurses.’